With the death of Kim Jong-il there is uncertainty about how much support the third generation of the North Korea’s ruling dynasty has among the ruling elite, especially in the military, and worry that successor Kim Jong-un might need a military show of strength to help establish his credentials. The National Post‘s graphics team explores the firepower available to the great successor.

The Arab Spring, one year later: We begin a six-part look at the convulsions that have shaken the Middle East and North Africa since the day one year ago when Tunisian fruit vendor Mohamed Bouazizi set himself alight in protest.

Space enthusiasts and those generally interested in the phenomena of the cosmos can unpack their telescopes this Saturday morning to observe the final total lunar eclipse of 2011, which will be visible from the west coast of Canada and the United States.

Andrew Barr/National Post

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/news/graphic-total-lunar-eclipse/feed0galleryThe Moon is engulfed in the Earth's shadow during the peak of a rare winter solstice total lunar eclipse as viewed through a telescope on December 21, 2010.Total lunar eclipseGraphic: Criminal Cases and Jail Time in Canadahttp://news.nationalpost.com/news/graphics/graphic-crime-and-punishment-in-canada
http://news.nationalpost.com/news/graphics/graphic-crime-and-punishment-in-canada#commentsSat, 03 Dec 2011 06:52:22 +0000http://news.nationalpost.com/?p=115788

The National Post’s graphics team takes on the 262,616 crimes prosecuted in Canada in 2009/2010

After more than 15 years of discussions about reducing greenhouse gases, the U.S. remains one of the world’s largest producers of carbon dioxide emissions. The National Post graphics team looks at comparisons between Carbon Dioxide emissions and population density.

After more than 15 years of discussions about reducing greenhouse gases, the U.S. remains one of the world’s largest producers of carbon dioxide emissions. The National Post graphics team looks at comparisons between Carbon Dioxide emissions and population density.

With the Middle East in turmoil, Iran is not the only country in the region to see a surge in espionage. At times of major political, economic and social unrest, the use of agents on the ground, eyes in the sky and computerized intelligence gathering increase, experts say. The National Post‘s graphics team takes a look.

Forty years after his daring flight into criminal history the identity of mysterious hijacker-parachutist “D.B. Cooper” remains one of the great unsolved crimes of our time.

New clues about the unidentified man who got away with a $200,000 ransom — or died trying — have led an FBI-backed team of “citizen sleuths” to conclude that he may have been a military-trained, French-Canadian factory manager or chemical engineer, probably from outside of Quebec.

HandoutUndated handout of the cover of 1960s-era French-language comic book featuring the character Dan Cooper, a Royal Canadian Air Force test pilot who battles enemies on Earth and in space.

The potential Canadian connection to one of the FBI’s most famous cold cases was first raised in 2009, when the U.S. agency revealed that Cooper appeared to have fashioned his identity and modus operandi from a 1960s-era, French-language comic book about a Royal Canadian Air Force test pilot and space traveller named Dan Cooper.

Now, the Cooper Research Team, headed by three civilian investigators who have had “special access” to FBI evidence files since 2009, is scheduled to discuss its probe of the case at a 40th anniversary D.B. Cooper symposium on Saturday in Portland.

The informally deputized investigators, who were invited to analyze the Cooper mystery by Seattle-based FBI agent Larry Carr, are Tom Kaye, a paleontologist at Seattle’s Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, Illinois-based metallurgical engineer Alan Stone and University of Chicago scientific illustrator Carol Abraczinskas.

“It’s a great mystery. What happened to this guy? The last thing we knew, he had $200,000 and bailed out of the back of a 727. And from there, we don’t know,” said Carr in this YouTube video embedded on the FBI’s website.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtKDb0gQ9hQw&w=640&h=390]

According to files archived by the FBI, some people applauded Cooper’s caper as heroic, which a sociology professor at the time referred to as the Robin Hood syndrome.

“We all like adventure stories,” said Dr. Otto Larsen in an archived report. “That hijacker took the greatest ultimate risk. He showed real heroic features — mystery, drama, romanticism, a high degree of skill and all the necessities for the perfect crime. This man was neither political nor neurotic. His motive was simply $200,000 and people can understand that.”

In 1971, months before Cooper bought his ticket for the fabled flight, The Daily Telegraph ran an article about a man describing himself as “Mr. Brown,” who hoaxed Australia’s Qantas Airline into paying 235,000 pounds in ransom money after a bomb threat, according to an FBI report dated Dec. 8, 1971. The description of the unidentified suspect were believed to be remarkably similar to sketches of D.B. Cooper.

FBI Vault

The Cooper case was revived in 2006 when the FBI used the 35th anniversary of the hijacking to retell the story of what it calls “one of our greatest unsolved mysteries.”

Carr later released composite sketches of the suspect and photos of key evidence collected during the original investigation, inviting the public to send in fresh clues to help solve the mystery.

The man calling himself Dan Cooper had claimed, during an afternoon flight between Portland and Seattle, to a have a bomb in his briefcase. When the plane landed in Seattle, 36 passengers were released after the hijacker received $200,000 in cash and four parachutes.

He then ordered the plane’s flight crew to take off for Mexico and — at an unknown location south of Seattle — the man parachuted from a rear door of the jet.

Carr and other experts have stated that it’s unlikely Cooper survived the nighttime jump over rugged land in a driving rain.

But the suspect’s body has never been found. In 1980, along the Columbia River in southwest Washington state, a boy found a rotting package of $5,800 in $20 bills that matched the serial numbers of the ransom money.

Regardless of whoever the middle-aged man who identified himself Dan Cooper and hijacked the Boeing 727 before parachuting out of the plane in driving rain is proved to be, his hijacking will forever be remembered as one of the 20th Century’s most daring and spectacular crimes.

As new Republican contenders have emerged, taken off and then crashed in the polls, Mitt Romney’s support has remained one of the few constants in the nomination race. And yet the GOP can’t seem to fully embrace him. The National Post’s graphics team takes a look at the ups and downs of the race so far.

An International Atomic Energy Agency report, due out Tuesday, is expected to push the Middle East to the brink of crisis, if it raises additional doubts over Iran’s nuclear ambitions. With that in mind, the National Post’s graphics team takes a look at what we know about Iran’s nuclear program, and what a strike against it might look like.

Despite the pending troop withdrawals in Iraq and those in Afghanistan between now and 2014, the United States remains a superpower on a scale not seen since the days of the Caesars. With this in mind, the National Post’s Richard Johnson takes a look at the scale of America’s forces.

In a report to the U.S. Congress, Richard Grimmett states that the recession has taken a bite out of the sale of arms worldwide. Below, the National Post graphics team breaks down the data. Click the image to see a larger version, or click here for a large scale PDF of the graphic.